The Twelve Tasks of Kurocles
by angelofplottwists
Summary: For the Spring Fairytale Challenge. A take on The Twelve Tasks of Heracles.
1. The Hero

_So, I was trying to quit, and did well for about half a year...but then I made the mistake of rereading one of the two mangas I actually bother with._

_This is what happened. Blame CLAMP, devchieftain over at Livejournal, and Greek mythology for all being so awesome and inspiring me._

_I think we've made it clear who this really belongs to._

_Please review constructively, but reviews in general are appreciated..._

* * *

"I am the strongest!" he cried.

Man after man, black shape after black shape – they all rushed to their deaths. One after another, they charged Kurogane, and all fell before him. Madness glinted in the warrior's eyes as he slayed foe after foe, disregarding where he took his battle. Then –

"Stop this insanity," ordered an imperious voice. And Kurogane, to his anger, was unable to move.

He stared ahead. Just inches away from the dripping blade of his sword was his own ruler, the Princess Tomoyo. Horrified, he tried to sheath the blade and bow, but found he could not. Tomoyo smiled at him.

"I think you have the wrong idea about strength, Kurogane," Tomoyo rebuked him gently. "Once again, you didn't do what I asked." To his dismay, he could detect _amusement_ of all things in her face. It frightened him, as it would any who knew the princess well enough. She wasn't just wise and cunning – she was _malicious_. "I asked you to avoid unnecessary death."

Kurogane glared at his princess, whose countenance was laden with over-dramatic disappointment. "What the hell are you doing to me?" he demanded. Tomoyo chuckled in her maddening way.

"It is true – there are none in my kingdom who are more powerful than you," she told him cheerfully. "That leaves me no choice." She stepped forward, suddenly going curiously taut. Kurogane realized belatedly that she was performing magic.

"The hell?" he muttered. In the air, tendrils of Tomoyo's magic were gathering around him. It was a very disconcerting sensation.

Tomoyo smiled kindly at him. "It is obvious that you won't learn any more here," she told him. "And as they once said, the bad ones must journey to get better." The lines of magic closed in on him. "So, a curse for you. Until you learn for yourself the true meaning of strength, you shall not travel any road to my kingdom, nor cross any border in the wilderness." She grinned now. "And do try to avoid killing too many people in your haste."

Something was pulling at him from inside this tightening cage of magic. "What are you expecting me to do?" he yelled at his princess.

"I don't know. Perhaps you ought to speak to the Priestess of Artemis in Tocheo," she said, before the ground sucked Kurogane into the most terrifying place he'd even been in.

He was spat out of the swirling vortex on a roadside, next to a sign proclaiming the border.

I've got to get back, he thought angrily, taking a step forward.

He walked straight into a pliable but present barrier. Try what he would, he could not advance past the border. Realizing the futility of his task, Kurogane sat down again to decide what he'd do.

Recalling what Tomoyo had said about the Priestess in Tocheo, he looked south down the road. It meandered through green hills and towards distant mountains. Tocheo was about eight days' journey on horseback from the castle, but that was cut short by at least one day.

I'll try this Priestess, Kurogane concluded. Maybe she'll know what kind of "true meaning of strength" Princess Tomoyo meant.

The Temple of Artemis in Tocheo was situated on a particularly lush green hill, surrounded by sacred trees and lesser shrines. Kurogane had grown used to being on his own for the past seven days, and was vaguely surprised to be in close proximity with other people all of a sudden. It was an irritating sensation.

His hike up the temple was only slightly slowed by other humans, to his annoyance. It would have been nice to yell at someone. Soon enough, however, he was out of the area of human inhabitance entirely, and the only others near him were the trees, looming on either side of the road. He reached the temple in little time.

It appeared deserted. The temple was constructed entirely of white marble, with a courtyard sporting a finely carved statue of the goddess herself and a few smaller images of the hunt and the moon. To a more sensitive or artistic soul, it would have been beautiful. To Kurogane, it was a waste of material.

Unsatisfied, he entered through the archway directly across from the main entrance into a pillared room dimly lit only by the archways to the outside and a few braziers burning expensive woods. A woman was leaning against one of the pillars.

Kurogane's eyes narrowed. This had to be the priestess, dressed like that. No other woman would have the audacity.

"You are the Priestess of Artemis?" he asked, to be sure.

"I have been called that," said she. "Along with a great many other names. What is it you seek?" Before Kurogane could respond, she continued with the raise of an eyebrow. "Many others come here – but if you find yourself entering my temple, you must have something you desire."

"I'd like to return home," he muttered. "You don't have to tell me that."

"I heard that!" the priestess told him, looking a little too evil for his own good. He sighed. Trust Tomoyo to send him to someone just as horribly twisted as she…

"But you know very well you can't do that, _as you are._ And if I were to change you…" Her smile suddenly vanished. "Only you can change yourself. All I can do is help."

Kurogane glared sullenly at the self-satisfied priestess. Her words had a ring of truth, but also in a great lack of sympathy. "So what can I do to get back?"

The priestess smiled predatorily. "I can do something to help you there…for a price," she replied enigmatically. "It's quite a great deal of work, though. Are you willing?" She eyed his expression of impatience and only smiled more.

It was probably a bad idea to trust this woman. But Kurogane lacked an alternative. "What's the price?" he growled after a moment's pause.

"Here's the arrangement," the priestess began. "You will go to work for the king of a nearby country. You will do him…let's say, twelve favors. And then your wish will be granted." She stood up and walked to an archway facing west, where the sun was becoming just slightly visible from within. "The country I speak of is only a short way from here. You should reach it by nightfall, if you choose to go."

There was something off about this statement. "How will you do that?" he demanded.

"I have my ways," she said. "Ohoho, yes."

She even had Tomoyo's laugh. Except somehow, it was even more sinister.

Kurogane didn't trust this woman at all. He also had his doubts about the process of changing himself. He didn't particularly _want_ to be changed, and furthermore couldn't see what was wrong with him in the first place. He wasn't perfect, of course – but he just did his job. On the other hand, if he didn't do something, he would never return home.

There was no real choice. "I'll do it," he decided grumpily. "But it had better work." He couldn't think of an appropriate threat. There wasn't much one could do to a priestess without inviting disaster, so he settled for glaring menacingly.

The priestess simply chuckled again, which Kurogane was sure was only to spite him. "I thought you might agree," she said.


	2. The King

When the priestess had said Kurogane would reach this country 'by nightfall,' he should have known she would be exaggerating.

She had given him direct instructions covering all possibilities of getting there, and what to say when he arrived. She had, of course, neglected to say anything about tiny tracks through the most difficult terrain this mild land had to offer without going into the mountains. She also had neglected to mention the various roadblocks where he was stopped and interrogated on his purposes in entering various kingdoms.

So it was nearer to the middle of the night when Kurogane arrived, fuming and ready to murder someone (namely a certain priestess), at the checkpoint into the kingdom of Hespira. There he was stopped and interrogated _again_, and then there was the hour-long walk to the castle. Kurogane had considered stopping at an inn somewhere, but really wanted the journey to be over and so had pressed on. Besides, he was almost there…

The castle itself was nothing like Tomoyo's castle back home. This land was obviously much more peaceful, as shown by the lack of military technology in the design. Instead, this castle had large windows and walkways overlooking gardens and the town around it. The land so far had been mostly cultivated – it seemed that this country was predominantly agricultural.

_I don't see what I'm going to do here_, he thought. What would a king here want with a trained warrior? The only guards he'd seen were those at the border, and the ceremonial guard at the castle door.

He reformed this opinion of sleepiness when he caught sight of the three who had begun to trail him when he neared the castle. Upon reaching the door, he was roughly accosted by the "ceremonial" guard.

"Name and purpose!" snarled the guard as Kurogane fought his own instincts to kill the man. He wouldn't make a favourable impression if he did so, and _then_ how would he pay the priestess' price?

"I am Kurogane," he informed the guard, "and I come bearing a message from the priestess of Artemis in Tocheo."

The guard coolly stared him down for a few moments. "I'll escort you in, then," he said. Without further preamble, he opened a side door and motioned Kurogane to enter. It led into an impressively large hall of gray stone. Aside from evenly-spaced torches on the walls and the odd tapestry, the entirety of it was very plain. It gave an ominous feel to the room.

"Wait here," the guard said, before pulling on what must have been some sort of bell, although Kurogane could not hear a chime. After few moments, a man in white and green livery appeared and the guard scuttled back outside.

"Are you here with a feather?" the man asked.

Kurogane blinked. "A feather?"

The man looked crestfallen. "Have you not heard, then? The king has offered a great reward for he that recovers one of the princess' feathers." Seeing Kurogane's apparent confusion, the man sighed. "What is your business, then?"

"I have a message for the king from the priestess of Artemis in Tocheo," Kurogane repeated.

"Tell me, and I will tell him tomorrow," the man said shortly, stifling a yawn. "It's much too late for him to speak with any who do not bear a feather or information about one such." He turned to go.

Glaring, Kurogane grabbed hold of his collar. "I've walked all day and a good part of the night for this, and I'll be damned if I have to wait any more than I've had to." He let go, having sufficiently intimidated the apparent civil servant. "Now, will you take me to him, or will I find the way myself?"

The man stammered, "But…it's far too late…"

"Is the king asleep?" Kurogane demanded.

"No…"

"Then take me to him," he ordered. It was too late to deal with stubborn civil servants in any diplomatic manner.

With a single backward glance of longing for the door he'd come from, the man scurried off. Kurogane followed him down the long hall, passing what was probably the throne room and climbing a set of stairs. They emerged onto one of the platforms Kurogane had observed from afar, dimly lit by more torches. A tall, thin man was leaning on the ledge, almost entirely in shadow. The civil servant didn't appear to notice.

"Your Grace," he called instead, summoning a man with light hair and glasses. The duke (or so he must have been) walked over towards them. "Man to see His Majesty. I've got to return to my post, but he wouldn't leave me be until I showed him up."

"Very well," the duke replied. "I'll take of this until we reach a satisfactory agreement." The civil servant, relieved, scuttled down the stairs and out of earshot.

"What need do you have to see His Majesty the king?" asked the duke.

"Message from the priestess of Artemis in Tocheo," Kurogane reiterated grumpily. "And no, I will not give you the message." The woman had been very adamant on that point, and Kurogane was inclined to distrust courtiers anyway. They could skew his words altogether too easily if he allowed them to.

"I'll find him for you," the duke said instead of arguing. "Wait here." He strode off to an archway to the interior of the castle and vanished into the gloom.

Kurogane glanced at the man in the shadows. "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

The man looked up, surprised. "You can see me?" he inquired in a light voice. "That's more observant than most." He stood upright and walked towards Kurogane, smiling. It was the kind of smile that made a person want to punch it away. It didn't seem real at all. "So who are you, who insists upon seeing the king and no one else?"

This was the first time someone had actually been interested in something besides their job. To Kurogane's annoyance, the man rose just a little in his esteem. "My name's Kurogane," he admitted.

"Interesting name," replied the man. In the deceitful torchlight, his hair appeared even paler than the dukes'. Kurogane wondered how much else was different between this country and his own.

"And you?" Kurogane asked, when no more was added to the statement. The man's infuriating smile widened, but he did not see anything.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't – Your Majesty!" exclaimed the duke, returning to the platform. "I…see you've found him."

"Thank you, Duke Fujitaka," the king said in a much more formal voice. "I won't force you to stay awake any more." The duke bowed thanks and hurried away, presumably to bed. "So what is it that you needed so drastically to tell me?"

Kurogane directed a questioning Look in his direction. "The king, eh?"

"So it would seem," the king replied quietly. "But really, what is it? Yuuko wouldn't send you for nothing."

"Yuuko?" asked Kurogane, with a sneaking suspicion that he would know.

"The priestess of Artemis in Tocheo," the king replied. "She sent you, correct?"

For a moment, Kurogane was overbalanced. Then he steadied his mental self and explained the situation. The king nodded occasionally, somehow managing to keep up his damn smile throughout the entire telling of the story.

"Tell me if I've got this right," he said once Kurogane had finished. "You misbehaved and now you've got to work to make it up!"

The complete idiocy of these words meant that they took a while to sink in. Kurogane stared in a mixture of horror and anger at the audacity of this complete stranger (be him a king or not) in coming to such conclusions. He didn't know very many kings, but this one was definitely the strangest, most unkingly ruler of them all.

"The hell do you mean by that?" he managed after a long pause.

"What I said." The king laughed gleefully, and Kurogane mused angrily that perhaps he would break his word to the princess sooner rather than later.

"I'll accept your offer, though," the king added. "Especially given circumstances…" For a moment, the infuriating smile vanished, but it was back up before Kurogane could decide what lay under it. "I'll have a footman show you to a room," he continued, "and I'll arrange some tasks for you, as Yuuko put it."

With that, the king meandered off. Kurogane, waiting for the promised footman, realised that Tomoyo had just met her match in annoyance. And he didn't even know the idiot king's name.


	3. The First Task

The court of Hespira did not match the castle at all. While it was plain stone and largely unadorned, the people themselves were dressed in painfully bright colours and glittering. The king himself, though wearing vivid colours, was no match for his court. It seemed to strange to Kurogane that this country did not revolve around its king, but rather in spite of him. Compared to Tomoyo's court, where everything had happened for and because of its princess, this was far inferior.

Kurogane, of course, did not say anything. That was the kind of comment you made to the king when he wasn't in front of everyone else. It eliminated all types of trouble, trouble that he would not mind but that would cause unwanted consequences. Getting back to his country as soon as possible did not involve getting banished from this king's court, when this was the chance he had been given to receive help.

Kurogane did not like to admit to needing help, but he acknowledged that there were times when dignity was set aside for expedience.

The court did not spend much time with the king, and the throne room was almost empty when Kurogane was shown in. The casual king of the night before was gone, as well as the awkward center of court life that Kurogane had been so surprised by earlier.

However, one thing still had not changed –

"Good morning, Kuro-cles!"

The man was still as inexplicably annoying as ever.

"It's Kurogane," he muttered. The footman beside him looked scandalized. "Your majesty," Kurogane added, refusing to add the implied capital letter. Whatever claims to the throne the king had, it wasn't nearly enough to earn Kurogane's respect.

As he and the footman neared the throne, another nameless courtier stepped forward. "His Majesty King Fai bids you welcome," he announced self-importantly, slipping in a glare at the errant king who dared speak before proper etiquette could be observed. The king – and what kind of a name was Fai, anyway? – appeared unrepentant and slightly uncomfortable.

"Can we get this over with?" Kurogane demanded. Both the footman and announcer looked horrified.

"How dare you speak so to His Majesty!" they cried, almost at the same time.

The king sighed. "It's quite all right. Kuro-cles is a busy man, and he's doing the country a large favor."

"It's Kurogane!" Kurogane repeated.

The king did not seem to notice. "I promised I'd arrange some tasks for you, did I not?" He looked positively gleeful at the prospect, which did not do much for Kurogane's sudden apprehension. Battle and pain, he could stand. Being forced to remain in the company of an idiot…not so much. He repressed a shudder and wondered what he was in for.

To his surprise, the exuberant smile on the king's face faded. "I have a cousin…" he began. "A cousin named Sakura. She's the sister of the king of the country to our immediate south, and currently next in line for the throne of Hespira."

Kurogane wondered what this had to do with anything.

"Princess Sakura…is immensely popular with the people. But there are those who resent that. One such managed to penetrate the protections that both her brother and myself. Not to kill her, but to take something more precious than her life."

"That is?" asked Kurogane, wishing the man would get to the point.

"Her memory," said a new voice. A boy, clearly not old enough to be fully trained but in the regalia of the guards, had approached. "He took her memory."

The king nodded. "This is Syaoran. He's been instrumental to the gathering of her memories thus far, but their locations have been growing more dangerous lately."

"So you're sending me to face them instead," Kurogane correctly interpreted with an inward sigh of relief.

"That's right. Any objections?"

"None at all," said Kurogane, satisfied. It looked like perhaps he would get a chance to keep his skills up after all. _And I can deal with dangerous situations much more quickly than royal idiots. I'll be home soon._

"We're looking for _what_?" demanded Kurogane in bewilderment.

"Feathers, sir," Syaoran replied self-consciously. "The man who stole Princess Sakura's memory turned the fragments into feathers. He was trying to do something with them, but then King Fai managed to save them with a gust of wind…"

"He's a mage, then?" Kurogane asked, remembering one such who had passed through Tomoyo's court. Syaoran nodded.

"A very powerful one. But he doesn't like using his magic." Kurogane thought he heard a trace of something in the boy's voice. He shrugged it off as none of his business.

"And we've got to find them now? Pretty bad planning on his part, then." Of course the feathers would disperse to random locations in a heavy wind. "And why am I needed, if they're around purely by chance?"

"It's not chance," Syaoran replied. "King Fai spoke to Yuuko as soon as possible. She couldn't gather the feathers, but she for a price she did give them a pattern. One side effect was the rising danger of recapturing them, but it has kept the thief from finding them."

In spite of himself, Kurogane couldn't help feeling curious. "A price?" he asked in spite of himself.

"No one knows what he paid."

Kurogane nodded. It fit what he had observed of the king, that he was so closed. He was too complex for Kurogane to care, though. Let the king deal with his own problems, and not trouble anyone else.

He and the boy were walking into the foothills north of the castle in the direction the king had specified. Somehow he knew where the feather was, which was not altogether surprising. What was surprising was that the king had bothered telling them.

But that was probably unfair. Whatever other faults the guy might have, he was obviously concerned about his cousin.

"So how will we know when we're near a feather?" Kurogane asked.

"We'll –" began Syaoran, but Kurogane hissed a warning and pointed ahead. He had just heard footsteps…_there_. He heard them again, and Syaoran's eyes widened ever so slightly.

They waited for a moment, and then a huge man burst through the bushes to the left of the road. He didn't look at all surprised to see them.

"Ho there," he cried. "Who are you?"

Knowing Syaoran probably didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, Kurogane answered quickly. "We're traveling through Hespira."

"What for?" the man asked, although whether it was from interest or amusement was difficult to tell.

Kurogane was at a loss, but Syaoran had recovered. "We're writing a book," he said seriously. "About the diverse microclimates present in the immediate land area."

Both the giant and Kurogane were at a loss, but the latter managed to appear as if he knew what the boy was talking about. The former just stared.

"That doesn't sound safe," he commented after a while. "I suppose I'll have to stop you!"

Syaoran blanched. "So much for that," muttered Kurogane. Drawing his blade, he dropped into a comfortable stance. "Listen you," he told the giant. "I don't know who you are, but if you insist on getting in my way then you'll feel my sword!"

The giant laughed. "My father has given me a way to be undefeatable," he warned. "No blade may pierce my skin. It's not for just any reason that they call me the Nemean Lion." He pulled back an arm and let forth a punch into the road. When the dust cleared, a large hole was left.

Syaoran nodded. "Then we'll find another way." With that as prelude, he leapt into the air and kicked out hard, sending his target staggering back a few steps and earning a little more respect from Kurogane in the process.

But the giant recovered quickly. "Your strength is no match for mine," he informed them both.

Suddenly inspired, Kurogane swung his sword on the giant man's head. It glanced off, but still made a satisfying thud when it connected. Satisfied, Kurogane swung again before the man understood what was happening.

Between Syaoran's kicks and Kurogane's swordwork, the man was out cold in moments.

"I'm disappointed," Kurogane muttered. "He should have put up a bigger fight."

Syaoran was busy searching the man's pockets. "What do you think gave him his power?"

Something glinted from the fallen man's cloak. Kurogane plucked it up and examined it – a feather, with a strange angular pattern on the front. "Is this it?" he asked.

Syaoran's eyes wet incredibly wide. "That's Sakura's feather," he whispered. "I should have known…"


	4. The Second Task

_Sorry for the wait._

* * *

"That was far too easy," Kurogane grumbled again, still horribly disappointed. He had expected a fight, not…a self-satisfied amateur with fancy tools but no skill. And he was using the feather knowing what it was doing. Kurogane didn't know much about the situation, but it looked suspicious to him.

He said as much to King Fai after the boy had scampered to wherever the princess presumably was being kept. The king seemed to actually consider what he said.

"It's always possible," he said after a while, "that we're not the only ones looking for these feathers."

Kurogane nodded. The thought had occurred to him as well.

"And if so, the edge we have in knowing the pattern might not be such an edge anymore," he continued. "Time to pull out some other tricks, I suppose." He smiled lazily. "Whenever you two are rested, I'll send you out again."

"Wait." Kurogane was slightly put out by the presence of the boy. It was his own price he was paying, wasn't it? And having two involved made things more difficult and less exciting. Not to mention the idea Kurogane had that there was something wrong either with the boy's leg or his vision… "Does the boy have to come along?"

The king shrugged. "He's a strong-minded guy. I wouldn't underestimate him, if I were you."

"Right," Kurogane said.

The king had merely smiled knowingly when Syaoran followed Kurogane into the throne room for the second task. The boy's presence hadn't been troubling Kurogane all that much until then, but it was too late to change anything now. He resorted to a glare, which while useless, made him feel a great deal better.

"This next one is rather vague," the king began without preamble. "I only know who has it."

Kurogane didn't see what was so vague about that, but he refrained from saying so.

"It is being carried by the Celesian deer."

Something in his voice transformed – not to ominous, but somehow darker. Perhaps he had some sort of connection to it. Kurogane resolved not to wonder, but to his dismay he was still curious after a severe mental rebuke.

_Then again, this king is one of the shiftiest characters I've had the displeasure of meeting. Surely it's natural to want to know more about potential threats,_ he reasoned. It was nice to have justification. He let the train of thought disappear.

"What is the Celesian deer?" Syaoran was asking, as confused as Kurogane had avoided appearing. "And how does it have one of Princess Sakura's feathers?"

King Fai did not answer immediately. "It belonged to a powerful sorcerer once, in a land of ice and snow," he said dreamily, as if to someone entirely apart from the two he spoke to. Kurogane had to repress the odd curiosity again. "He thought he could control the very thoughts of the deer. Instead, it fled and became violent and mad."

He smiled again in the way Kurogane was _sure_ was fake. "By the way, I would also appreciate it if you were to refrain from killing it. It can't be faulted for being what it is." He smiled wider, and perhaps because Kurogane was paying attention to it, he caught the barest emphasis on the 'it'.

_I suppose you can, then_? he mused sourly.

The boy spoke up again. "How will we find it?" he asked. The king help up a hand, and with the other pulled out a small white object.

"Yuuko gave this to me a long time ago," he explained enigmatically. "It alone has the power to sense where the feathers lie."

The white thing unfolded itself and revealed a rabbit face with the strangest stone set in the middle of its forehead. Kurogane knew at that instant that the thing spelled trouble.

"Puu!" it cried happily, instantly proving his suspicions correct. It further did so by immediately jumping on his head, and _staying put_. No number of surreptitious twitches or shakes could dislodge it, and when he finally plucked the thing from his head it wriggled from his grasp and jumped back on.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded when the struggle proved fruitless.

"Mokona is Mokona!" it cried as if upset, and kicked him. The king looked as if he was about to start crying with restrained laughter.

If this had occurred under normal circumstances, the white thing would have been speared like a kebab on his sword and the damn king would be next for unleashing this horror upon him and having the audacity to laugh at it. But as things were, he could only shout angrily in helpless fury as the white thing promptly took control of the situation.

"The feather is _that way_!" it cried, pointing at a very solid stone wall.

Kurogane muttered ever more angrily under his breath, while Syaoran explained to the horror that directions didn't work until they were outside.

The thing continued to annoy him throughout the journey, although even more annoying was the fact that it did know where it was going. Worse, it actually behaved civilly to Syaoran, saving its true horrors to release upon its first victim. With all the noise they were making, Kurogane doubted they'd ever manage to find the damn deer.

But after several hours of constant irritation and muttered death threats, the damn white thing jumped up and down on his head and shut up. Interpreting this as a signal that the deer was approaching, Kurogane pulled out the rope he'd brought in dim hopes of tangling it somehow.

The white thing prodded him once in the back of the head: _keep going_.

After five minutes of creeping forward silently, a rustling could be heard coming towards them. Syaoran grabbed an end of the rope, and they separated to opposite sides of their makeshift trail.

The rustling grew louder, and from the bushes sprung a stag. Its antlers were long and sharp, and trapped in their midst was a feather like the one the Lion man had possessed. It was running straight for the rope.

Two more steps took it into the trap, and it was soon tangled. Kurogane had hoped that this next task would be more difficult, but it seemed it wasn't to be. Was Syaoran just that incapable, or was something going on?

As if to answer, the deer twisted and narrowly missed stabbing the boy. So this was the missing piece of the puzzle.

"Don't let it break loose!" he called urgently. Syaoran nodded as he jumped sideways, avoiding the vicious antlers. He misjudged and clipped a nearby tree, tripping over. The rope flew from his hands.

There was only one thing to do. Feeling a significant lack of divine favor, he leapt forward and grabbed the deer from behind, incapacitating the antlers. "Now tie it up!" he ordered, looking for a something blunt to knock it unconscious with. After a moment of hesitation, Syaoran obeyed, and the deer fell crashing to the ground, Kurogane still holding its neck.

There was a rock nearby. Freeing one hand, he caught hold of it and struck the deer on the back of the head. It instantly drooped.

"Is it alive?" asked the white thing, having suddenly reappeared from wherever it had disappeared to when the task went wrong.

Kurogane threw the rock at it, although it managed to dodge. "Where were _you_?" he demanded.

Meanwhile, Syaoran had edged his hand amidst the sharp antlers to grasp the feather. "Do you think this was what made the deer act so aggressive?" he asked, apparently deeply interested.

"Could be," Kurogane grunted, picking the deer up. It was heavier than it looked. "Let's take it back."

The king greeted them with an idiotic and _very_ unkingly wave as they entered the throne room. The nameless courtier who stood by his side looked scandalized. Kurogane winced, feeling an abnormal twinge of sympathy. At least he wasn't stuck with the king for more than it took to receive and complete his tasks.

"We managed to get another feather back!" Syaoran exclaimed, genuinely smiling and startling Kurogane. The kid was generally serious and composed, but apparently he too had his moments of exuberance.

"And here's your damn deer, alive as promised," Kurogane growled, dropping the deer in an ungraceful heap. It staggered to its feet, then turned and bolted, stopping short by the closed door, and proving that the feather had indeed been the cause of its previous belligerence.

The king got up and with a grimace beckoned to it. Its antlered head snapped up, and it trotted over to where the king stood, standing docilely at his side.

"So why did it need to stay alive?" demanded Kurogane. "It nearly gored the kid before I knocked it out."

"Could you kill this face?" the king asked with a ridiculous smile, turning the deer's head to look at Kurogane. "It could become a castle pet!"

Kurogane clenched his fists slowly. Such danger, simply on a whim. No, this man was _definitely_ not cut out for kingship. "When you have something else for me to do, send for me," he growled, no longer merely irritated. He turned and stalked to the door.

Behind him, the king chuckled. "And why should it be faulted? It was only under a spell, after all."

Kurogane thought angrily that it sounded forced.


End file.
